Several years ago I decided to bite the bullet and go for my graduate degree. I had the full support of my husband and so I started at the University of Pittsburgh. It was something I’d wanted to do for a long time but it just never seemed to be the right time. Besides we just weren’t ready financially to do it before. Not that we were really set financially when I started graduate school but my husband’s career was going well and we were able to take care of our children and everthing else that we needed to at the time. We also realized that as parents of three young boys there really wasn’t going to be any perfect time.
I knew immediately after I started my graduate program that I was going to be in serious trouble if I didn’t get up to speed real fast on technology. Although we owned a computer I was far from being what you’d call “computer literate” by any stretch of the imagination. Up to that time I was only using our computer for two things, word processing and email and very rarely at that. I could type fairly well so I had that going for me. We still used typewriters when I was an undergraduate student some 16 years earlier. I remember going to a typing lab instead of a computer lab if I had to type a paper back then. I was also fairly familiar with one or two search engines but again not a proficient user at all.
Since I was going into the Information Sciences field a number of my classes were oddly enough on computers and technology. Imagine that! One of the classes that I remember quite vividly required us to build a website completely from scratch (for lack of a better word). That meant learning HTML and really understanding it if I wanted my website to turn out well. I don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard or spent so much time on a class. There were periods of frustration and one or two sleepless nights. I felt like I was being thrust into a completely foreign world and that there was no way I was going to master any of it. Needless to say I did eventually master it before the end of the semester. Not only did I have a professional website to show for my efforts but I also learned some valuable lessons along the way. In fact, by the time I graduated, I felt as if I had gotten more out of graduate school than just my degree.
I learned that there really isn’t anything I can’t do if I put my mind to it. I learned that there is nothing wrong with asking questions over and over again if I don’t understand it the first, second, or even the third time. I learned that mistakes are a necessary part of the process. I also learned that it is never too late to learn a new skill and that we are never too old to learn.
It is in this spirit then that I want to talk specifically with mothers – and I mean all mothers. Whether you are a new mother or one whose kids are all grown, a mother who works outside the home or a stay-home mom, we all know the challenge of finding time to do everything that we want to do. I hope that you do make the time. It doesn’t have to be a lot of time, it can be as little as 15 minutes a day.
I hope that you are all lovers of learning. I hope that you are all looking for ways to always learn whatever your circumstances are. My mother (who is now a grandmother several times over) just learned how to use email last year. She is now in the process of improving her typing skill and speed with the help of a computer program.
My goal in this section is to offer simple tutorials or point you to some good ones online that you can start using if you are interested in learning more about technology, specifically computers and the Internet. If there is something that you’ve always wanted to learn in this area let me know and I will try my best to find you the best resources for it.
President Hinckley reminds us that the Lord wants us to be a learned people. He reminds us that we have “a mandate from the Lord to educate our minds and our hearts and our hands…The Lord wants you to train your minds and hands to become an influence for good as you go forward with your lives. And as you do so and as you perform honorably and with excellence, you will bring honor to the Church, for you will be regarded as a man or woman of integrity and ability and conscientious workmanship…”
I love learning. As mothers I think that one of the greatest gifts we can give to our families and children is to instill in them a love of life-long learning. Learning is empowering!
